Sister Joan Chittister famously said, "We are each called to go through life reclaiming the planet an inch at a time until the Garden of Eden grows green again." Reflecting on that journey -- a blog at a time -- is the focus of this site.

Saturday, April 14, 2012

Missing Voices

Did you see the GLAAD study called "Missing Voices" about how LGBT voices of faith are underrepresented in media? Did you get the part where if we don't speak out Rick Warren ends up speaking for Jesus? Do you wonder if there's a "market" for our voices and if anybody cares if we DO speak out? Here's "Exhibit A" ... (and there are currently 754 comments) ... the blog stats from the "Open Letter to the Purpose Driven Pastor" I posted over at the Huffington Post earlier this week.

Yes, our voices matter! I've got a blog coming on this over at the Huffington Post called "Our Missing Voices Matter" so stay tuned for that. But for the moment, I just wanted to post up the link to the GLAAD study which found ... hope you're sitting down ... that LGBT religious voices are "underrepresented" in the national news media.

AKA: No. Duh!

The study found that that three out of every four people of faith called on to speak about LGBT issues in the media came from anti-LGBT traditions. The report was commissioned by GLAAD and conducted by the University of Missouri Center on Religion & the Professions and examines the religious voices presented in national news outlets in print and television on LGBT issues.

The research found that the media was overwhelmingly relying on the voices of those whose religions have formal policies opposing LGBT equality, despite the fact that acceptance of LGBT people is growing across all faith traditions. These voices come disproportionately from the Evangelical Christian and, to a lesser degree, Roman Catholic traditions. Most messages from these voices about LGBT people were negative.

“Today’s media has a responsibility to reflect the diversity of religious voices, rather than just those who choose not to support LGBT people,” said Ross Murray, Director of the Religion, Faith & Values Program at GLAAD. “By elevating select anti-LGBT voices who are out of touch with so many in their own churches, media is falsely representing views of entire religious groups and contributing to a climate that isolates LGBT youth and adults from their faith, a false dichotomy that no one should have to make.”

Evangelical Christians account for almost 40 percent of all the negative statements about LGBT issues made by religiously identified spokespeople. And half of the faith organizations called on by the media were Evangelical, even though only a quarter of Americans identify as such.

Spokespeople for Roman Catholic hierarchy accounted for another 12 percent of negative statements, despite the fact that lay Catholics - whom these spokespeople are used by the media to represent - are by and large supportive of the LGBT community.

Equally striking was the finding that voices from the growing number of religious groups that are affirming of LGBT people were largely missing. The mainstream media used far fewer religious sources from Mainline Protestant (17 percent), Jewish (5 percent), or other religious sources whose messages could be expected to be predominantly positive.

A majority of Americans of all religions and denominations support the LGBT community in matters like non-discrimination and hate crime protections. And support continues to grow across the country even on the issue of marriage equality. According to the Public Religion Research Institute, support for marriage equality is strongest among Jews (76 percent), and non-Christian religiously affiliated Americans (63 percent), a group that includes Buddhists, Hindus, and Muslims. But a majority of white Catholics (56 percent), Hispanic Catholics (53 percent), and white mainline Protestants (52 percent) also favor allowing gay and lesbian couples to marry.

Media portrayals reinforce cultural biases, particularly about the relationship between religion and the LGBT community. LGBT or pro-LGBT sources are often presented without any religious affiliation, thus contributing to a false and overly sensational ‘religion vs. gay’ frame. Despite their underrepresentation, there are many examples of LGBT-affirming religious voices, some of whom identify as LGBT themselves.

Within this past week, we caught glimpses of the pro-LGBT religious movement. The ‘Gay Christian? YES!’ campaign launched in Michigan. A young Christian continues his quest to demonstrate the biblical support for equality. A Grammy and Dove-award nominated Christian singer shares her story as a Christian and a lesbian. And a youth Catholic makes the difficult choice to disassociate himself with Catholic Charities because the hierarchy cannot be charitable toward homeless LGBT youth. These are the voices that only exist on the margins and are missing from mainstream media.

GLAAD offers ‘Missing Voices’ to encourage the media to accurately represent pro-LGBT voices of faith. GLAAD will be presenting findings to national and local news rooms as part of a project to elevate messages from pro-LGBT religious voices.

Welcome to my blog ...

... where I try to be really clear about what I'm clear about. For example:

Religious persecution is when you're prevented from exercising your beliefs, not when you're prevented from IMPOSING your beliefs.

========

Until we end the blatant and indefensible discrimination of DOMA we are not living up to the pledge we make to be a nation of liberty and justice for all, we are not providing the equal protection guaranteed by the 14th Amendment to same-sex couples and we are failing to defend the self-evident truth that our forbearers fought to protect: that ALL people are created equal.

============ Using "biblical standards" to condemn those who understand that sexual orientation is morally neutral makes as much sense as using "biblical standards" to condemn astronomers who understand that the earth revolves around the sun. The Bible may have said it but that doesn't always settle it. ============ It's liberty and justice for all -- not some. It's respect the dignity of every human being -- not just straight ones. Got it? Great. Let's do it.

====== In order to keep moving forward toward liberty and justice for all we can't just be right about what the 1st Amendment protects. We have to be smart about how we respond to those who skipped the 9th Commandment and think lying is a Traditional Family Value. ======= Jesus said "Love your neighbor." Not "Love your neighbor unless your neighbor is gay."

Basic Bio

A cradle Episcopalian second generation Dodger fan ENFJ native of Los Angeles I was ordained in 1996 and currently serve as a Senior Associate at All Saints Church, Pasadena.
My family consists of my wife Lori, 2 dogs, (Hillary & Chelsea), 3 cats (Maui, Cherokee and Harold) and our four young adult kids: Jim (married to the awesome Kelly), Brian, Grace and Emily.
My life in the church has included everything from Junior Altar Guild with my Aunt Gretchen to my “obligatory young adult lapsed phase” to a tour of duty on the St. Paul’s, Ventura vestry where I also worked as parish secretary to a life-heart-soul changing experience as part of the Cursillo community to serving on my parish ECW Board to seminary at the School of Theology in Claremont to associate/day school chaplain positions at St. Mark’s, Altadena and St. Peter’s, San Pedro to Executive Director of Claiming the Blessing to my current parish position at All Saints Church. It’s been a long and winding road and the journey continues: an inch at a time.

Bottom Line:

A Comment On Comments

Strongly held perspectives are appreciated. Ad hominem attacks will be deleted. When in doubt, revisit page 305 of the BCP and if what you're typing doesn't meet the "respect the dignity" clause of the Baptismal Covenant then save us both some time and energy and don't hit "send."

DISCLAIMER

This blog is the personal weblog of one Susan Lynn Russell. The opinions expressed herein are hers and hers alone. The postions taken on matters theological or political (or anything else, for that matter) are in no way to be construed as the official positions of any other person, institution, group or organization.

Other Cool Stuff I Get To Do

Smart things other people have said you should know about

“Faith in action is called politics. Spirituality without action is fruitless and social action without spirituality is heartless. We are boldly political without being partisan. Having a partisan-free place to stand liberates the religious patriot to see clearly, speak courageously, and act daringly.” -- Ed Bacon

“Power at its best is love implementing the demands of justice. Justice at its best is love correcting everything that stands against love.” – Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.

"It's time for "tolerant" religious people to acknowledge the straight line between the official anti-gay theologies of their denominations and the deaths of these young people. Nothing short of changing our theology of human sexuality will save these young and precious lives." -- The Rt Rev Gene Robinson

"How can you initiate someone into the Body of Christ and then treat them like they’re half-assed baptized?" - The Rt Rev Barbara Harris

“I swore never to be silent whenever and wherever human beings endure suffering and humiliation. We must always take sides. Neutrality helps the oppressor, never the victim. Silence encourages the tormentor, never the tormented.” ~ Elie Wiesel, 1986 Nobel Peace Prize

"Resolve to be tender with the young, compassionate with the aged, sympathetic with the striving and tolerant with the weak and wrong. Sometime in your life, you will have been all of these." — Siddhārtha Gautama

"I'm so glad Mary didn't wait for the formulation of a Doctrine of the Incarnation before she said 'Yes' to God." -- Ed Bacon

"The great Easter truth is not that we will be born again someday but that we are to be alive here and now by the power of the resurrection." -- Philips Brooks (paraphrase)

"History belongs to the intercessors, who believe the future into being.” -- Walter Wink

“Patience, a quality of holiness may be sloth in the soul when associated with the lack of righteous indignation.” -- Abraham Heschel

"Don't tell me what you believe. Tell me what difference it makes that you believe!" -- Verna Dozier

“We establish no religion in this country, we command no worship, we mandate no belief. Nor will we ever. Church and state are, and must remain, separate. All are free to believe or not believe, all are free to practice a faith or not, and those who believe are free and should be free, to speak of and act on their belief. At the same time as our constitution prohibits state religion, establishment of it protects the free exercise of all religions. And walking this fine line requires government to be strictly neutral.” -- Ronald Reagan

Let's be clear. The fact that the State authorizes a marriage in no way compels any Church to perform or recognize it. Marriage equality merely guarantees equality under the law to all citizens; it does not compel churches to do anything.-- Katherine Ragsdale